SCBA Mounting Brackets??

Over the last year we have purchased some new rigs and the old way of monting the SCBA's in the brackets seem to be gone. Now the new rigs do not have the clips that hold the scba in place. They are now (I will call them half brackets) designed, in order for the scba to stay in the seat, so that they must be strapped in. Is this an NFPA thing or trend going on? Are your new rigs comming this way? Are you changing them back to the old way so that they do not have to be strapped in? BTW the new rigs include a Seagrave and a couple HME/Ferrara's.

I have been told by our shop that these new brackets are mandated by NFPA. They designed a bracket that required a strap to hold the bottle because the straps were not being used with the clip style brackets like we are used to.

They in a word------SUCK.

Another example of NFPA claiming to make something better, but making it worse.

Honestly, most companies with the new brackets here are still not using the strap. Now the bottle just barely rests in the bracket and is not being held in place by a strap or a bracket.

If it keeps people from getting smashed in the face with them, whats the problem? Smarter than the equipment, people.......

How many men do you know have been smashed by these flying SCBAs?

I work with guys who have 20-25-30 and even a few with 35+ years and most have been involved in an accident before and NONE can remember ever being hit by a flying SCBA or knowing anyone who has. And this comes from making 1000s of runs every year for all those years.

By the same reasoning we should all be wearing 5 point harnesses and helmets with neck rolls just like in Nascar...if it keeps people from getting tossed around the cab, whats the problem?

Some of you have really lost sight of the important issues of this job.

I work with guys who have 20-25-30 and even a few with 35+ years and most have been involved in an accident before and NONE can remember ever being hit by a flying SCBA or knowing anyone who has. And this comes from making 1000s of runs every year for all those years.

By the same reasoning we should all be wearing 5 point harnesses and helmets with neck rolls just like in Nascar...if it keeps people from getting tossed around the cab, whats the problem?

Some of you have really lost sight of the important issues of this job.

Keep worshiping those dopes in the NFPA if you like.

FTM-PTB

I know of 5 people, personally, who were tossed about a cab, and 2 people, again personally, who suffered life changing injuries due to being smacked with a scba. Good enough?

Ah another fine example of legislation over discipline. If your dept has a policy that all scba's must be secured then secure them. If your ff's don't follow policy then discipline them. Don't create legislation (or in this case a NFPA standard) because you can't do your job and enforce your own dept's rules.

you can still order the full bracket as long as the straps are still there..when we ordered new brackets they came in with the "half" brackets and we called back anded changed out the 2 pieces which made them that way with the older style yet we still use the straps

We had to switch to the "half" bracket when we went down to Scott's. Their big regulator block on the side makes it so they can't sit in the full bracket well. The straps then became required because the packs would fall out of the half bracket setup. In our recessed seats, there was not enough room on top of the bracket for the "top flap" that helps hold them in. Not worried about NFPA standards for this so that is NOT why we got the straps.

And I'll agree, I don't like getting things "mandated" for me either. Fill all your seats with seat belted FF's and there is no room for the SCBA's to come loose.

We had to switch to the "half" bracket when we went down to Scott's. Their big regulator block on the side makes it so they can't sit in the full bracket well. The straps then became required because the packs would fall out of the half bracket setup. In our recessed seats, there was not enough room on top of the bracket for the "top flap" that helps hold them in. Not worried about NFPA standards for this so that is NOT why we got the straps.

And I'll agree, I don't like getting things "mandated" for me either. Fill all your seats with seat belted FF's and there is no room for the SCBA's to come loose.

what kind of scott's? we've got the NxG2's in them and they're working fine

We recently received a new engine with these "safety" scba brackets installed. Almost immediately plans were made to modify the brackets. We took one of the goofy brackets off and put an older style bracket in it's place. THEN, we followed it up with an SOG that says anytime an scba seat is unoccupied the safety strap will be in place. Guess what? 2 months later and no problems with following the SOG.

Yet another example of a standard having to be written to inconvvenience the masses because FD's and line officers neither have the will nor the knowledge to enforce the rule about safety straps on the old brackets. IF your FD chose to use them.

Like Vinnie I have NEVER heard of anyone having been involved in an accident where an scba flew around the cab after coming out of the bracket. I have just shy of 30 years on the job and instruct as well so it is not like I haven't been around and seen some things. It would seem to me that if this was an issue the answer would be to use the safety strap that has come with the scba brackets for years instead of forcing another piece of crap down on the rest of us.

Bones I am curious as to the brand of bracket you were using that your Scotts would work in. We have had Scott 2.2's and now AP-50's and never had a problem.

We have an engine that was purchased new about 2 years ago. It came with the ZICO brand SCBA Bracket as seen above. We also retro fit two of our ladder trucks with them. We have found that although they are easy to deploy, restoring them can be quite a chore.

For our new fleet we are looking at a mechanical style SCBA bracket offered by Bostrom seen here:

I don't know if this a little off subject, but some of the posts in this thread reminded me of a realization I had while chaperoning my son's school field trip the other day. We worry about being killed by a flying SCBA while nearly every kid in America riding a school bus is doing so with no seat belt available. That's a hell of a lot of potential little projectiles. Interesting priorities sometimes.

Received our KME platform a few months ago that is equipped with Ziamatic safety latches. They are poorly designed and its' hard to release the latch. We've broke the piece that attaches the rope to the latch four times. I thought I had a genious idea and replaced this piece with a round key ring that is heavily constructed. It worked great for one week until it broke the damn rope. I hope the engineer's that design the platform are better than the ones that design the safety latch. If not I predict my fat ***** will fall as a result of ladder failure.

Brackets

We just acquired a couple of new Pierce's with these brackets. From what I understand after doing a little research one of the main reasons for the change was that people were putting there SCBA on and thinking they were secure, and not wearing there seat belt (false sense of security). And it is somewhat a valid point, as I am sure some of you would agree. We were informed we could put one clamp on to hold the pack in place, yet we havent accomplished this task yet. And the other valid point is that the cylinders are secured from dislodging which is mentioned above.

We have only pulled a few of the ropes out so far.

One thing that I believe are a great improvement are the seat belts, they are easier to fasten, the reciever is stiff and visible. This is the one thing that is lacking in almost all the apparatus we have, we all know we need to wear seat belts, but the majority of them are not user friendly. I believe someone could make a killing installing the new style seat belts in older apparatus.

Its all about Safety, and 'Everbody going home'. Dont think the NFPA is just picking on us everyone who works in a craft trade are being introduced to new safety challenges everyday, safety is something that will continue to make our daily task change throughout our future, some we will agree with and somethings we wont, But when one persons life was saved because of this it was well worth it! Agree?

45 minute AP50's. Block kept hitting the bracket and twisting the pack around. The brackets are Zicomatic's. We were able to purchase the half clamps and remove the full clamps from the existing brackets.

I hate to say it but the mechanical ones are even MORE of a pain in the *** than the halfbracket/strap design. It's a struggle to get the damn things to clamp right, and even then they sometimes work themselves open when the apparatus is in motion. I miss the old brackets.

I hate to say it but the mechanical ones are even MORE of a pain in the *** than the halfbracket/strap design. It's a struggle to get the damn things to clamp right, and even then they sometimes work themselves open when the apparatus is in motion. I miss the old brackets.

OK, great information.

What model of SCBA are you using? We have ISI Vikings, so I'm curious if there are problems like I've been reading with specific brands, or if it is across the board.